Stress to ease financial ache ‘weighs heavily’ – Rishi Sunak
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ishi Sunak has mentioned the strain of easing the financial ache felt by households “weighs heavily” on him.
The Prime Minister, who sat down with the BBC’s Test Match Special programme on Saturday, was quizzed on his promise to revive belief in politics throughout a largely light-hearted interview with cricketing broadcaster Jonathan Agnew.
It comes as inflation continues to stay stubbornly excessive, whereas the Bank of England’s choice to hike rates of interest threatens extra distress for mortgage-holders.
In a prolonged interview throughout a break within the Ashes check, the Prime Minister was pressed on his motivation to get into politics and the strain of the job.
“I’m very lucky, my family are incredibly supportive, but you know, gosh, I do and I did as Chancellor as well because you know, thankfully, it didn’t happen in the end, but people were forecasting millions and millions of people to lose their jobs.
“So it was my responsibility then, and I said at the time that weighed very heavily, and right now it weighs heavily on me,” he mentioned.
“We have inflation at the level that it’s at and that’s having an impact on people’s pay packets, their budgets and what they can afford to spend time on, what they can do for their kids.
“Of course that weighs heavily on me, it’s my responsibility to fix it and make the situation better.
“And unfortunately, it’s going take a little bit of time for us to do that. It means I have to do some things that people don’t always love but they’re the right long-term things to help everybody.”
The Prime Minister, who used the interview to debate his love of cricket, was seated at Lord’s not removed from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.
Mr Agnew had initially promised to maintain the dialog firmly on cricket, earlier than veering into a number of the political and financial turmoil of latest months.
Alluding to former prime minister Boris Johnson, the cricketing commentator requested Mr Sunak if the picture of politicians has been broken just lately.
“I said it when I first got the job, actually, I think. I really wanted to restore trust in politics,” Mr Sunak mentioned.
Of course that weighs closely on me, it is my duty to repair it
“Because more generally, I can see that people were frustrated and upset. And part of my job is to restore trust. And there’s lots of different ways you can do that.
“It’s obviously acting with integrity, which I try and do. You’re doing the right thing, and hopefully people seeing that, but also just doing the things that you say.”
Referencing his much-repeated 5 priorities, he mentioned he made them particular “deliberately”.
“I’m not going to waffle around and have some kind of generic-sounding language, ‘I want stronger this’ or ‘better that’.”
But when it was put to him that it was a troublesome problem to revive belief in politicians, the Prime Minister mentioned: “The vast majority of people who enter public service do it because they care.
“They care about making their community and their country a better place.”